


breathe, spiderman

by Trickster88



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Anxiety, Gen, Identity Porn, Irondad, Irondad Fic Exchange 2020, Not Canon Compliant, Panic Attacks, Post-Civil War, Rouges Return AU, Space-Related Trauma, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:20:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28275987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trickster88/pseuds/Trickster88
Summary: Spiderman has been, quite literally, crawling the walls of the space shuttle ever since they got on board. At first, Tony thought it was his usual boundless enthusiasm, but they’re going on half an hour of pointless babbling, and though he hates to admit it, he’s starting to get a little worried.“How has the blood not rushed to your head and made you pass out by now?” Tony wonders aloud, interrupting whatever tangent Spiderman was on now - he’d tuned him out somewhere in between Star Trek references and something about his Aunt’s recipe for key lime pie (don’t ask him how they’re connected, Tony really wasn’t listening).“It’s a spider thing,” Spiderman supplies the answer from where he’s hanging upside down in the corner of the ceiling, barely missing a beat.***Written for theIronDad Fic Exchange 2020.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 10
Kudos: 210
Collections: Irondad Fic Exchange 2020





	breathe, spiderman

**Author's Note:**

  * For [peterspajamas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/peterspajamas/gifts).



> It's been a while, hasn't it? 
> 
> I've got some stuff in the works that I hope will be coming to an AO3 near you in the very near future, but I guess we'll have to wait and see. Enjoy this (especially you, peterspajamas!) and have a happy holiday!
> 
> Special thanks to my beauteous friend phoenixxcore for the beta <3 You’re the Christmas miracle here!

The kid seems nervous.

There’s no denying he’s a kid, much as Tony wishes it were otherwise (it would make Tony’s life a helluva lot easier if he didn’t have to feel _guilty_ about drafting younglings). Spiderman’s short, with a thick Queens accent that makes him seem a little older - and granted, the mask gives him an air of menace when he’s holding a truck over his head - but he’s a kid, for sure. 

Then again, everyone’s a kid to Tony, so, you know, it’s _fine_. He’s probably what - 23? 20? 18 at the youngest. He’s a kid, but he’s a legal adult and a superhero, and there’s a certain level of maturity that comes along with that, no matter what actual age you are...right? That’s what Tony’s going to tell himself to sleep at night, anyway.

Though it’s pretty bold of anyone to assume he’s sleeping well in the first place.

But the Avengers are spread a little thin these days, and Tony doesn’t have much of a choice. Rogers went rogue, and while him and the others are back now, things are a little tense between them and the government. Every government, actually, in case that wasn’t clear - not just the United States. Mixing that situation with alien diplomacy - two words Tony didn’t expect to say, _ever_ , in his lifetime - is a recipe for disaster. They don’t need any more friction, because then, surely, sparks will fly onto the goddamn dry tinderbox that is Steve Rogers, and Tony might finally have a blaze even he can’t put out.

Ergo: Tony has to go make peaceful negotiations with aliens, and he’s taking the B team with him. Alright, not even the B team - that’s giving Spiderman a little too much credit. He’s taking the C team, with a D and an E mixed in (he says E because Ant-Man is coming, and Scott Lang knows how to get on Tony’s nerves unlike anyone he’s ever met, without even trying all that hard). It’s irritating that Steve doesn’t even seem insulted he wasn’t invited, but then, Tony’s not sure the man has ever been asked to handle a problem he couldn’t punch his way out of.

But back to his main point - the kid is nervous. Spiderman has been, quite literally, crawling the walls of the space shuttle ever since they got on board. At first, Tony thought it was his usual boundless enthusiasm, but they’re going on half an hour of pointless babbling, and though he hates to admit it, he’s starting to get a little worried.

“How has the blood not rushed to your head and made you pass out by now?” Tony wonders aloud, interrupting whatever tangent Spiderman was on now - he’d tuned him out somewhere in between Star Trek references and something about his Aunt’s recipe for key lime pie (don’t ask him how they’re connected, Tony really wasn’t listening).

“It’s a spider thing,” Spiderman supplies the answer from where he’s hanging upside down in the corner of the ceiling, barely missing a beat. “Also the adrenaline, probably. I mean, I don’t know, exactly I can just - um, do it, I guess.”

“Right.” Tony throws his stress ball up into the air and catches it with one hand, nothing but casual as he leans back in his chair. “Well, do you think you could come down here with us mere mortals? Maybe give the ‘man’ part of your name a little onus?”

“Yeah, of course, sorry,” Spiderman says quickly, flitting down into the chair opposite Tony. Ant-Man gives a little start from where he was snoozing at the other end of the table, and Wasp elbows him without looking up from her tablet, clearly used to it. Tony should really start referring to them with their actual names - Scott, Hope - but he doesn’t know Spiderman’s. It’s a privacy he’s tried to respect, insofar as he’s permitted to respect it - there’s going to come a day when his identity is demanded to continue friendly relations. The only reason Tony’s not busting balls upfront is because right now, the team is courting him - if they come on too strong, Spiderman might cut and run. It’s an extension of trust, one Spiderman will have to return, sooner rather than later.

“You want to come out with it, or are we going to be doing this dance all the way there and back, shortstop?” Tony asks bluntly. Ant-Man - _Scott_ \- is back to struggling not to fall asleep in his seat, and Tony doesn’t know why he’s engaging, really. Spiderman is more than capable of filling the silence all on his own with chatter Tony is perfectly able to tune out - they’ll be back on earth within two hours. Maybe it’s because he’s the one who tapped Spidey in the first place, he’s the one that first had to approach with an invitation to the big boy table - he’s the one that brought Spiderman to SHIELD’s attention. He’s the one who offered him an upgrade, because he believed in what Spiderman was doing, what he stood for -

Or maybe it’s just the lack of stimulating conversation in this space shuttle. Right. Sure. Tony’s not going to get sentimental about it. It’s not like Spiderman is his _responsibility_ \- he’s a grown adult; a kid, sure, but he’s able to make his own choices. Spiderman never _asked_ Tony to do any of those things. Spiderman had geeked out a little, at first, and that made Tony feel like he’d made the right decision, for once. Ego aside (and really, his ego wasn’t getting as much play these days as everyone always assumed it was, Steve and company included), if someone like Spiderman was inspired to use their powers to help others, maybe not _because_ of Tony but - even if he only influenced that kind of good coming into the world, only in part - it’s worth it, right?

He _said_ he wasn’t going to get sentimental. Jesus. Maybe he really should start thinking about retirement.

“Out with what?” Spiderman asks, a little too innocently. It’s the tone of someone who’s used to playing dumb, and Tony’s eyes narrow slightly; he’s not fooled. 

“You look like you’re about to shit a brick, kid. Or at least spin a web. You can’t do that, right?” Tony throws his stress ball up again, catching it and squeezing it in his left hand. It’s been bothering him lately, a symptom of sobriety and age catching up with him, all at once. 

“The webs are synthetic.” Spiderman says, avoiding the root of the question. Tony exhales in a soft puff, squeezing his stress ball as he leans forward on his elbows. “And I’m not a kid.”

“Yes, you are. Take it as the blessing that it is, you’ll wish you appreciated it more when you’re my age.” Tony snorts, and the mechanical lenses on Spiderman’s suit whirr. He’s got another suit cooking for the kid back at his lab, something he’ll fit Spiderman with when he officially joins the auxiliary team. “A modern marvel of invention, sure. Now are you going to make me ask a third time, or are you going to tell me what’s got your super-undies in a twist?” 

“I’ve just - you know,” Spiderman shifts in his chair, looking like a guilty schoolchild. It’s kind of funny, in a way that makes Tony’s lips twitch at the corners. There’s something inherently funny about a grown man in spandex, an image that is not helped by Spiderman’s thwip and quip signature style. “Never been to space before.”

“It’s nothing special,” Tony says, managing to sound impressively offhand. The truth is, he still has nightmares about that first time, with the bomb and the wormhole open over New York. Whether Spiderman believes him or not, Tony can’t tell, though the lenses on his eyes whirr quietly. “We’re not even going to space. Well, we _are_ but - we’re not leaving Earth’s atmosphere, not completely.”

“Sometimes it’s just, uh, hard to breathe, in here.” Spiderman gestures vaguely to his mask, folding his legs into the chair, criss-cross applesauce. Tony raises an eyebrow, tossing the stress ball from hand to hand. 

“You can take that off, here. Amongst friends.” Scott’s head dips again and he barely catches it before it hits the table, and Hope makes a noise of displeasure, again, not even looking up from her tablet. Tony taps his glasses subtly, bringing up the biometrics from the spider suit on his HUD. Spiderman’s pulse is unusually elevated, as is his breathing. Was he...suppressing panic? “You don’t have to, of course.”

“Right. Maybe, um,” Spiderman fidgets again, gloved fingers moving to the edge of his mask. “Maybe I’ll just, uh, roll it up to my nose.”

“Sure,” Tony says evenly, determined not to make it a big deal. Spiderman does just that, carefully rolling the mask just over his nose, resting on the bridge. He takes a deep breath, cracking a small, sheepish smile. Tony tries to keep his expression neutral, but it’s difficult with how...achingly _young_ he looks. Is it just Tony, or is he kind of a babyface? Not exactly what you expect from a guy who flies ten stories in the air on pendulum physics. He was expecting _some_ stubble, at the very least. 

Spiderman catches him staring, and shrinks somewhat in his chair. Tony averts his eyes, throwing the stress ball up in the air again, leaning back in his chair to catch it. He stands, tucking a thumb in his pocket, still rolling the stress ball in his other hand. “Come on, kid, let’s take a walk. Help this old man stretch his legs, huh?”

Spiderman nods quickly, standing up to follow Tony out of the room. Tony leads him out, to the corridor of the transport ship, and then out into the outer hallway with the big panes of space and radiation resistant glass that give them a good view of the expanse of space. Well, of the Earth’s upper atmosphere - but it’s pretty much space. He squeezes the stress ball hard, and forces himself to look out over it. It still takes his breath away, and not necessarily in a good way.

The kid doesn’t look much better. His jaw is clenched, nostrils flaring a little, and Tony doesn’t have to see the rest of his face to know he’s freaking out a little. He nudges Spiderman with his shoulder gently, but hopefully strong enough to break him out of his thoughts. 

“Hey. _Hey_.” Tony claps a hand on the kid’s shoulder when he doesn’t flinch away from the nudge. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah! Yeah I’m - I’m fine.” Spiderman says weakly, and Tony can see a hint of an embarrassed flush creeping up his exposed neck. “That’s just - that’s _space_. That’s space. Oh - oh my God. That’s space.”

“Breathe, kid.” Tony turns him away from the window, squeezing the kid’s arm. Tony feels a little twinge of guilt - he didn’t mean to induce a _panic attack_ , he just recognized that Spiderman wasn’t entirely comfortable and wanted to check in. Spiderman’s breathing is a little too shallow, stress radiating from his entire body. “Breathe with me, okay? In, and out. You’re okay.”

“Space. I’m in _space_.” Spiderman mutters, shaking a little, and Tony barely catches him before he sags - he’s more solid than he looks, and Tony has to lower them to the floor.

“Woah there, bucko.” Tony props Spiderman up against his side, their backs braced against the glass. Shit, he really is having a panic attack. _Shit,_ what is Tony supposed to do? It’s not going to help either of them if they _both_ panic. “Okay, okay - look - ”

“I know it’s scary,” Tony starts, because he’s not going to bullshit the kid. Spiderman is struggling to breathe, fingers curled into fists, halfway limp against Tony’s side. “I’m scared, kid, I’m - I’m fucking terrified. Space is not exactly a healthy place, for me. But - you’re okay. I’m not going to let anything happen to you, okay? I wouldn’t have brought you here if I didn’t think you could handle it. _Breathe_ , Spiderman.”

Surprisingly, he does.

Slowly, and not, Tony’s sure, without great effort, Spiderman evens out his breathing. He regains a little more control, sitting up more under his own power, still tucked against Tony’s side. He ducks his head, still not looking up at Tony - though he’s pretty sure that has more to do with his own self-consciousness.

“Sorry.” Spiderman murmurs quietly, subdued. “Sorry, that was - ”

“Happens to all of us.” Tony interrupts, not unkindly. “Even me.”

“Really?” Spiderman says, and it’s not curious; he sounds dumbfounded, like that’s beyond his scope of comprehension. Tony snorts and nods, tilting his head towards Spiderman, like he’s imparting a secret (he...sort of is).

“Really. All the time. Less, recently, but it happens. That’s the not-so-fun part of the job.” Tony blows out a breath, rolling his head back against the glass. “It used to be a lot more often, especially when all of this first started for me. It gets better. Not…completely, but it gets better.”

Spiderman blows out an exhausted sounding breath, wrapping his arms around himself. “Yeah, I sure hope so. Thanks, Mr. Stark.”

“No problem.” Tony lets the beat of silence hang in the air after that, before he squeezes Spiderman’s arm again. “You know, you can stop with the Mr. Stark thing, I feel like we’re on a first name basis here. You got something I can call you, kid?”

“Ben,” Spiderman - _Ben_ \- says, too easily for it not to have some significance. Tony’s very sure it’s not his real name, at least, not in full, but that’s fine. Trust is earned slowly. “You can call me Ben.” 

“Alright then, Ben,” Tony heaves himself off the ground, offering Ben a hand up. “You ready to meet an alien?”

***

Okay, Tony wasn’t planning on _this_. 

The hanger they walk out into looks like a space airport. Well, sort of. Tony knows the delegation that came into the Earth’s orbit wasn’t small by any means, but this is clearly a fully operational ship. It would be enough for some parties back on Earth to get a little twitchy, but Tony is going to share as few details as possible with some powers-that-be.

“Hello,” The leader greets them in clipped English, which sounds slightly computerized coming through a translator device on the alien’s shoulder. Tony can’t discern a gender, but the creature has three eyes and a blue-tinted pallor. “Welcome, warriors of Earth.”

“Hello,” Tony greets in return, followed by Scott and Hope’s echoes, and Ben’s cheerful chirp. “Thank you for having us, your excellency.”

He says it partially as a joke, but the alien just blinks slowly at him and seems to accept it as a greeting. There’s a frame standing in their way, looking almost like a metal detector, and the leader steps through it with ease. 

“Through here, please. The ship will log your presence.” Tony’s pretty sure something’s getting lost in translation, like the word _biometrics_ , but if this is the only version of alien probing they have to endure, he’s fine with it. Sure, the _aliens_ get biometric readers installed and it’s totally fine, but when _Tony_ does it in his own goddamn facilities it’s _unethical_ and _a breach of privacy_ (Pepper’s words, not his). 

Regardless, he steps through the scanner thingamajig, then Scott, and Hope. Nothing bad happens, which Tony takes as a win. Ben starts to step through, though, and one of the guards puts his arm out to stop him from moving to the other side completely. Instantly, the three of them are on alert, the nanites on his chest housing unit rippling at the edges, ready to be called into action. 

“Is there a problem?” Tony demands, maybe a little harsher than necessary. Spiderman holds his hands up, unsure. The guard alien says something in a gurgling language they can’t translate, and the leader tilts their head curiously at him.

“You’ve brought a youngling to discuss your world’s diplomacy?” Tony relaxes a tiny bit, spreading his hands in an equally nonthreatening gesture. The calculating look on Hope’s face is giving him some measure of relief as well. 

“He’s just here to observe. He’s not that young, either, I don’t know if our lifespans are different - ”

“Your young reach manhood at 18, yes?” The alien cuts Tony off before he can fully smooth it over, and the next statement takes the air right out of his sails. “This one is not yet 18.”

“Excuse me?” Tony says, and his gaze zeroes in on Ben, who, even with a mask, totally has his hand caught in the cookie jar. “ _Excuse_ me?”

“Whoops.” Spiderman says, not even bothering to deny it. He jerks a thumb back over his shoulder towards the space shuttle. “Uh, maybe I should go wait...you know, not here?”

“Yikes. That’s not good.” Scott says, head turning back and forth, watching Spiderman beat a hasty retreat while Tony goes through the five stages of grief at lightning speed. “Did you not _know_?”

“Know? Why would I know that?” Tony demands, inhaling deeply. Deep breaths. Calm down. How young could he be? If he wasn’t 18... _shit_. Did he kidnap an actual _child_ to _space_?

“I thought he was yours.” Scott says, as if that makes any sense whatsoever. “Like your ward, or something.”

“Do I look like Bruce Wayne to you? Don’t answer that.” Tony holds up a hand, before Scott can get any more ideas of continuing this nightmare of a conversation any further. He points at Hope, pausing only long enough to give them a directive before he takes off after Spiderman. “You, and only you, are in charge.”

“Go easy on him,” Scott calls after him, as Tony stomps towards the space craft. “He’s the future!”

***

**Author's Note:**

> I write Spiderman with no hyphen for the aesthetic.
> 
> Follow my writing blog at [thwip--thwip](http://thwip--thwip.tumblr.com) for more debatably decent content.  
> [Rebloggable link](https://thwip--thwip.tumblr.com/post/638348877611843584/breathe-spiderman-trickster88-marvel) <3
> 
> Comment if you liked it! Love you all 3000.


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